| PN | Angry | 158
Qi Chao was snapped back to his senses by a soft “pop” sound.
He looked up toward the source of the noise and saw that Xiang Yue was standing in the hallway without him even realizing it.
“Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?” Qi Chao asked with a gentle smile, concern in his voice. He walked over to Xiang Yue’s side, his manner as usual, and reached out to ruffle his hair. “Can’t sleep?”
Xiang Yue shook his head, his dog-like ears twitching slightly. He looked up at Qi Chao and asked, “Dad, did something happen?”
Qi Chao’s smile faded a bit as the issue he had been avoiding was brought up again. After a brief pause, he redirected the conversation, “Just now, I heard the sound of something breaking. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not hurt.”
Saying this, Xiang Yue shifted his foot and calmly replied, “I just stepped on this thing that looked like an eyeball.”
On the floor were a few specks of red and some glass-like shards. Qi Chao took a glance, then gently patted Xiang Yue’s head. “How could it be an eyeball? It’s probably just a glass marble that broke. Don’t say such scary things in the middle of the night.”
Xiang Yue, always obedient to his father, immediately adjusted his answer without hesitation: “It was probably Agu who played with the glass marble and then just tossed it here.”
In the household, only Agu was known to leave things lying around, and since he always liked to mess with odd material, Xiang Yue didn’t hesitate to put the blame squarely on him.
Qi Chao chuckled at this, wanting to defend Agu. But then, recalling the words of those three men from earlier, his mind drifted off again.
The hallway was silent. When no motion was detected, the sound-activated light dimmed down. Xiang Yue’s tail swayed behind him, and the confusion in his eyes deepened.
Dad was definitely troubled by something.
Noticing Xiang Yue’s gaze, Qi Chao hesitated, unwilling to let the children in on his worry. He said, “It’s getting late. Xiang Yue, go back to bed now.”
Xiang Yue knew his father didn’t want him to get involved. His furry tail drooped, and his usually calm eyes showed a hint of disappointment, though his tone was as steady as always. “Alright, Dad.”
Even so, Xiang Yue remained in the hallway, staring at Qi Chao and not turning to leave.
Seeing this, Qi Chao realized that Xiang Yue had probably sensed something. He pressed his lips together, and his already complex feelings grew heavier.
The children in the family were all so understanding and caring.
It was precisely because of this that Qi Chao couldn’t bring himself to believe what those three men in the room had revealed.
Or rather, no father could ever easily accept that his seemingly lovable, considerate children would go to a place called the “Trial Grounds” to torment humans—or that his gentle, kind-hearted partner would be labeled as a villain, spoken of by these men with utter fear.
A chill crept over Qi Chao. He didn’t want to believe any of it, yet if he took their words as true, suddenly, so many previously confusing things began to fall into place.
Why had Agu, who’d promised to stay home and watch cartoons, suddenly been off with Chi Yao playing a game of chase with strangers?
And if this was a first meeting, why did those three men appear so fearful of Brother Shen and the children?
All these details seemed to point to one uncomfortable truth: those men’s claims might indeed be real.
Xiang Yue watched his father sink back into contemplation, and he frowned, trying to analyze what could be troubling his father so deeply.
Before he could reach any conclusion, Qi Chao suddenly called his name.
“Xiang Yue, have you ever found Agu or Lan Luo scary when you’re around them?”
“No, never.”
Why would they seem scary?
Xiang Yue looked puzzled. To him, Agu and Lan Luo were just a couple of childish goofballs, with strength levels comparable to his own. He couldn’t understand what his dad meant by “scary.”
“Hmm, Dad doesn’t think so either,” Qi Chao replied with a soft smile, as if he had just asked out of curiosity. He looked up at the ceiling, his gaze darkening slightly.
After a few seconds, he asked, “Xiang Yue, can you sense if your father is still in the villa?”
Father?
Xiang Yue paused, his dog-like ears perking up before he shook his head. “I can’t hear Father’s breathing.”
Xiang Yue’s ears weren’t just for show; powered by his Puppet Master’s spiritual energy, his sensory abilities as a beast puppet were even keener than those of a standard S-class puppet.
Normally, he didn’t display any noticeable difference, but when he focused, very few sounds escaped his hearing.
“Is that so?” Qi Chao didn’t seem surprised at the answer.
Qi Chao’s deep brown eyes shifted to the room beside him, and he walked over to knock on the door.
There was no response from inside, but instead, Li Bai in the neighboring room heard the noise, rubbed his eyes, and came out.
He stopped when he saw Dad and Xiang Yue outside Lan Luo’s door, a bit surprised. The white fox mask dangled on his head, his golden eyes dazed. “Dad, Xiang Yue, are you waking Lan Luo up?”
Wasn’t it still the middle of the night? Li Bai was confused.
Qi Chao, too preoccupied to respond to Li Bai, opened Lan Luo’s door only to find the room empty. Growing concerned, he moved from room to room, opening Agu’s and Moss’s doors. All of the children who should have been asleep in their rooms were nowhere to be found.
“Where did Lan Luo, Agu, and Moss go?”
Li Bai was momentarily stunned before a flicker of urgency crossed his face. “Are they in danger?”
Perhaps due to the increasing noise, Shuang Jian, Xuan Jian, and Qiu Qiu, who had been asleep, gradually emerged from their rooms.
“Where did Father and Agu go?” Xiang Yue now realized that his father’s earlier silence might indeed be connected to this situation.
“Father and the others are missing?” Qiu Qiu fluttered her transparent wings, anxiously stomping in midair. “It’s so late, and it could be dangerous outside!”
Xuan Jian and Shuang Jian remained silent, but their tightly furrowed brows clearly revealed their concern over the family members’ disappearance.
Qi Chao, who had been the first to realize his partner and the children were gone, should have been the most anxious.
Yet, at this moment, he appeared remarkably composed, as if nothing unusual had happened. He even calmly reassured the children.
“Brother Shen and Agu went out for a bit; they’ll be back soon. Go back to your rooms and rest—Dad will wait here.”
The children, however, didn’t respond. They merely stared intently at Qi Chao, making it evident that they had no intention of going back to their rooms.
“Dad, we want to stay with you,” Li Bai said, clutching the hem of Qi Chao’s shirt tightly, his fingertips turning pale from his grip.
If Father and Lan Luo had planned to leave, they surely would have informed Dad in advance.
Otherwise, Dad wouldn’t be out here searching in the middle of the night. Though Dad’s expression looked as calm as always, Li Bai sensed that he must be feeling deeply troubled inside.
Qi Chao looked down at the faces of his children and let out a helpless laugh, his heavy heart lightening just a bit. He truly did feel a sense of distress, though he hadn’t fully untangled the exact source of it.
Maybe it stemmed from realizing he didn’t understand his partner and children as well as he had thought. Or perhaps he felt hurt by the fact that they had hidden things from him.
But before anything else, he needed to figure out if what those three men had said was true—and exactly what his loved ones might have done.
Qi Chao had originally planned to handle this on his own without involving any of the other children, but it was clear they weren’t about to let him go through it alone.
“All right,” he said, giving in. “But first, Dad needs to confirm something. Wait here for me.”
With that, Qi Chao turned and walked over to a guest room in the corner, knocking on the door.
Inside, the three men who heard the knock jolted awake, huddling together on the bed, trembling. The darkness of the room amplified their fear. They hadn’t heard any earlier noises, as their human hearing wasn’t as sharp as that of the puppets, and they’d been in a deep sleep.
Now, as the knocking sound woke them, each swallowed nervously. Four in the morning—why would someone be looking for them at this hour?
“It’s okay. It probably isn’t a villain… Villains wouldn’t knock,” one whispered, trying to reassure the others.
“Come in,” said Li Ge, who had gathered his composure first, raising his voice slightly. The door opened, and when they saw Qi Chao standing there, the three men, still huddled together, sighed in relief.
“Sorry to disturb your sleep,” Qi Chao said with an apologetic tone.
“It’s no problem. Is there something you need?” Li Ge replied, relaxing a little.
“It’s nothing urgent. I just wanted to ask about the Trial Grounds and the villain you mentioned earlier,” Qi Chao smiled gently.
He acted just as he had during the day—friendly, controlled, and polite—standing at the door without stepping inside.
However, the three men on the bed went pale as they heard his words. Cold sweat instantly soaked their backs, and it felt as though a scythe was hanging above their heads, ready to fall.
How did he know about this?
The villain had explicitly warned them not to reveal anything to Qi Chao, and now, with Qi Chao aware of it, wasn’t this a sign that they had lost their last lifeline?
The three men’s faces turned ashen, their bodies trembling, as if they might collapse at any moment.
"You’re saying what? We don’t understand," Li Ge forced a smile, trying to brush off the conversation. "We never said anything like that. You must be dreaming, or maybe you've been watching too many movies, and it was just a hallucination."
Seeing the three big men trembling like frightened animals yet still stubbornly refusing to admit anything, Qi Chao’s expression didn’t change.
His deep brown eyes, shrouded in shadow, seemed darker than usual, and his voice grew low and calm.
"Are you really not going to admit it?"
Li Ge felt a chill run down his spine at those words. He looked up at Qi Chao and only then noticed that the man had somehow moved right to the edge of their bed.
Qi Chao’s usual warm, friendly demeanor was gone. His face, already naturally a bit fierce, now looked even more intimidating. Without his smile to soften his features, he stood there with a subtle, almost mocking expression, like a classic villain.
He spoke again, his tone as calm and measured as ever, but with an underlying intensity. "Perhaps you don’t know this, but the puppets my partner made are all S-class. The ones I made are the same. They’re very well-behaved. But I can’t guarantee that they won’t get angry if you lie."
What did he mean by that?
Did this mean that Li Bai and the others were like those demon puppets, capable of crushing them in an instant?
The thought sent a shiver down the three men's spines. They instinctively looked toward the door, only to realize that five exquisitely crafted puppets were now standing outside.
As the hallway’s motion-sensor lights flickered on, casting shadows in the dim light, three of the puppets stood silently, their expressions cold and lifeless, their eyes vacant, staring at them as though they were already dead.
The other two, after meeting their gaze, slowly smiled, but the smiles only seemed more sinister and unsettling in the current situation.
"Uncle, a child who lies isn’t a good child, you know?"
The white-haired puppet’s smile remained bright and cheery, but it was backlit by the harsh light, making its expression chilling and unnerving.
The three men on the bed looked at this scene, their legs going weak with fear. Old Liu, unable to hold back his fear, buried his face in Zhang Li’s shoulder, trying to hide his rounder frame.
"I... I’ll talk," Li Ge stammered, his eyes red and his face as pale as death, as though something had shattered inside him.
Qi Chao: ...
It seemed like they hadn’t done anything, so why did this person look like he was completely afraid?
Li Bai, who had simply been expressing his thoughts, was also a little confused by this scene.
Why was Uncle crying?
Dad had always said that lying was wrong, right?
Hesitating, Li Bai glanced over at his father. After meeting Qi Chao’s comforting and encouraging gaze, he instantly relaxed.
He wasn’t wrong.
It must be that Uncle lied, and that’s why he felt so guilty that he was crying.
Meanwhile, in the association’s secure room, Ayu felt a sharp pain in her right eye and instinctively squeezed it shut, as if she had sensed something.
Despite being in the middle of a crucial moment, she quickly alerted, “Father, the surveillance at home that I set up has been destroyed.”
“Why would the surveillance be broken?”
Agu, who had just returned from the association’s upper management, no longer wore his usual smile. Even with his love for drama, he could tell that something was seriously wrong. Especially now, when Qi Chao might be growing suspicious of them.
Ayu closed her eyes, trying to analyze the situation using the past surveillance footage to predict the future, but no matter what she predicted, all paths led to one inevitable conclusion.
"Father, Dad has already learned about the Trial Grounds and the plot from those three. What should we do now?"
Upon hearing this, all the puppets present panicked.
Moss’s black eyes widened in shock, his hands gripping the plush doll tightly. Lan Luo’s gaze darkened, his fingers anxiously clutching the hem of his pants as he tried to steady himself.
Chi Yao’s large sword slipped from his shoulder, his fiery eyes now filled with confusion. Agu’s usual smile had completely vanished.
"Father, what should we do now?"
What should they do?
He also wanted to know the answer.
Shen Yuxi shifted his gaze away from the ability transplantation machine in front of him. His expression remained calm, but a subtle coldness lingered.
If one looked closely, they would notice his fingernails had turned white from the force of his grip, and his jaw was clenched tighter than usual.
He should have killed them all from the start.
Instead of worrying about things being exposed and causing Qi Chao’s disgust, he had left those three alive.
Even killing them would have been better than this.
A dark mist gradually began to gather in Shen Yuxi's eyes.
“Remove the core. We’ll leave immediately.”
That was the only option left.
The five puppets temporarily pushed down their fear of losing Qi Chao and focused on the machine in front of them.
Once the core was successfully removed, Shen Yuxi and the puppets did not linger. After retracting the Mother Tree’s barrier, they turned and entered the vortex.
During this time, Shen Yuxi had already thought about how to explain things once he returned, how to shift the focus to a more favorable narrative for himself.
Given Qi Chao’s personality, he was sure to believe him. Even if there were doubts, as evidence disappeared and time passed, the falsehoods would inevitably turn into truths.
With this in mind, Shen Yuxi temporarily relaxed.
However, upon returning to the villa, he immediately sensed something was wrong. It was too quiet—eerily quiet.
“Father, Dad and Li Bai are both gone.”
Lan Luo spoke in a panic. Was Dad abandoning them?
Shen Yuxi’s lips turned pale, his brows furrowed, and a sudden pain shot through his head, followed by sharp pains in his chest. He spoke, his voice strained: “What about those humans?”
“They’re gone too.”
Moss answered hoarsely.
Hearing this, Shen Yuxi felt a bad premonition stir within him. He slowly exhaled, gripping the two cores of the Mother Tree in his pocket, trying to calm the restless turmoil in his heart.
“Go to the Trial Grounds.”
As long as Qi Chao hadn’t entered the Trial Grounds yet, there was still a chance for him to salvage the situation.
Shen Yuxi’s eyes darkened.
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